Twilight Tear Video firing her 6 .50s

[Per Bjorkqvist]

Tracer tip colour of the .50 projectiles are painted white,aren't they?
Here in Sweden we used P-51 as J 26 during 1945-53 and the ammo came from U.S, for sure.
I recall the red tips were icendiaries...black tips were armour-piercing.
In the movie they used red-tipped ammo and no sign of tracers could be seen.
Although when tracer ammo is fired from any type of gun,they does not lit up until app 100 yds from the barrel.

[Steve Nelson]

Are the weapons on these aircraft configured in such a way that they can't fire actual bullets, only blanks?

Steve the Curious

Watch the Fagen P-51 video again. Those are live rounds being loaded and fired. Notice the holes in the paper target? The New Zealand P-40 was only firing blanks (but still awesome!). It's my understanding that because a .50 machine gun needs mods to fire blanks that it can't fire live rounds. I wish they'd been firing tracer rounds in the P-51 like they did in the war. That would have looked incredible.

Sorry..I hadn't seen the vid when I asked the question. I was a work, and the company's "nanny software" blocks Facebook.

That is one incredible video! I can't help but wonder how much the test cost..how much does a live .50 round go for these days?

SN

[Richard W.]

Tracer tip colour of the .50 projectiles are painted white,aren't they?
Here in Sweden we used P-51 as J 26 during 1945-53 and the ammo came from U.S, for sure.
I recall the red tips were icendiaries...black tips were armour-piercing.
In the movie they used red-tipped ammo and no sign of tracers could be seen.
Although when tracer ammo is fired from any type of gun,they does not lit up until app 100 yds from the barrel.

Hello Per- I'm not sure which cartridges you remember as being white-tipped. Could you be thinking of the silver-tipped Armor Piercing Incendiary?

This figure is from the 1991 edition of FM 23-65, the Army Field Manual for the .50 Caliber M2. I see they dropped a comma in the label for Tracer. It should read "Red, maroon, or orange" not "Red maroon or orange."

[hbtcoveralls]

They were probably using tracer since it is a lot cheaper than ball ammo. Incendiary is cheaper yet, but not very common.
Tom Bowers

[lotus49]

They were probably using tracer since it is a lot cheaper than ball ammo. Incendiary is cheaper yet, but not very common.
Tom Bowers

I know nothing about ammunition, and would be completely incapable of telling any apart from another, but I cannot help but think that if you have funded a P51 restored to the level Twilight Tear is, you have installed original restored guns, you have gone to the effort to facilitate a real firing, and you are going to orchestrate the entire event, that the relative cost of the ammunition is not an overly concerning factor?
I would think it would come down to which type is most suitable for the intended event, cost irrespective.

Amazing video however, it gives a much better understanding of how the features we see so often static in restorations actually operate.

[Cherrybomber13]

I can think of a few places in Texas or Arizona that you could get away with a full set of belts... Love to see a night shoot from the air with all 6 ablaze with tracers going after a ground target... Hint Hint Red Jacket LOL

[Enemy Ace]

That is really cool. But I pray that nobody ever does anything stupid with that plane... I can't think of anything that would give the government quicker carte blanche to chop up all warbirds than somebody doing something stupid with an armed up mustang...

[Dan Johnson II]

The live 50s aren't in TT permanently. I do believe that was a bit of a one off, with the potential to do it again someday. It was only approved for ground firing too if I remember right and they went through all kinds of hoops to get permission to do so. The guns in the bays now are not live.

[Per Bjorkqvist]

I realise that the colour of the tips were totally different from the U.S standard when I look at the picture of colour variations compared to the Swedish ammo I have seen..
I am sure of the white tipped tracers because the projectile itself is straight and flat(the lower part of projectile)...an you can see the deep hole in the bottom where the phosfor used to be:)

[Chappie]

One thing I was surprised at was the sound of guns. I always thought that 50s had a much deeper sound like.......well...like in the movies.


Chappie

[Steve Nelson]

They would probably sound much deeper and richer in real life. Camera microphones don't really pick up the full audio spectrum well, especially low-end frequencies that are more felt that heard. That's why when you see film or video of actual rifles or handguns firing, it's more of an anemic "crack crack" rather than the familiar movie "kapow!" And of course, movies and TV shows always enhance the sound effects so small arms sound more like cannons, and that's what most of us tend to think they sound like in real life. I'll admit I have very little experience with firearms, but I always find it interesting that when witnesses describe a shooting on the news they always start with "I thought someone was setting off firecrackers," because movies and TV have conditioned them as to what a gun is "supposed" to sound like.

SN

[N3Njeff]

They were probably using tracer since it is a lot cheaper than ball ammo. Incendiary is cheaper yet, but not very common.
Tom Bowers

I know nothing about ammunition, and would be completely incapable of telling any apart from another, but I cannot help but think that if you have funded a P51 restored to the level Twilight Tear is, you have installed original restored guns, you have gone to the effort to facilitate a real firing, and you are going to orchestrate the entire event, that the relative cost of the ammunition is not an overly concerning factor?
I would think it would come down to which type is most suitable for the intended event, cost irrespective.

Amazing video however, it gives a much better understanding of how the features we see so often static in restorations actually operate.

I loved the Half-track and jeep being used. I had only wished that everyone was wearing HBT coveralls. Maybe next time they put them back in for another firing!!

I am suprised that there was no mention of the recoil, pretty impressive to see the mustang jerk around on the bindings.

[AG pilot]

Those that have not stood next to live firing M2 50 cal, should find the nearest machine gun shoot and experience it first hand!

[Stephan Wilkinson]

how much does a live .50 round go for these days?

An earlier poster wrote that they cost $5 a pop.

[bdk]

http://www.jgsales.com/-p-57862.html

$2.30/round + shipping. Cheaper if you reload your empties, maybe about $1/round + labor.

I used to buy it for about $1.00-$1.35/round, but it went way up to over $5/round for a while and has now come back down a bit. The price of brass was ridiculous a few years back so a lot of usable cartridges were scrapped. I don't think that the US allows surplus cartridges to be sold any longer, they must be demilled, so the shortage has increased prices.